Abandoned Cove. June 30 - July 2

Abandoned Cove ( John Harper anchorage ) 

We left Swordfish Bay because there was a gale warning - winds to 35 knots expected from the south - south east - and Swordfish bay was pretty much open to the south. 

There was a very protected anchorage in the McNaughton Group that a fellow Krogenite recommended. It was also in the Hamilton's book - they called it Abandoned Cove. It was only a short distance away - 7 miles north.  

Once we left the Swordfish Bay the first 15 minutes or so were very VERY lumpy!  We were bouncing all over the place. Lilly went quickly from the crate to her spot and we were quite concerned she would barf. I felt a little woozy - but we got in the lee of some Islands and the seas settled quickly. 

We thought Abandoned Cove was a nice little spot. Very protected from almost any wind direction. 

There was a sailboat already anchored up when we arrived. 

Jim was able to find a place to take Jenny to shore. 

The first night we expected a lot of wind because of the gale warning but there was very little wind in the cove. Great! That's why we are here! 

The gale warning continue for three days. The second day we pulled the anchor and moved the boat because we were quite close to a rock wall and it was starting to blow harder. It was a fairly small anchorage for two boat because there were a number of rock hazards around.  Some of the rocks were uncharted. 

A very large rock in the channel coming into the cove. 

Now you see it ......

Now you don't .....

And the discussion was -- when does a rock become a reef?!! 

July 2nd it was really windy and raining - heavy at times!  Full wet gear day!  Jim was going to go fishing but it was gusting up to 19 knots! 

And then at 5 pm the rain stopped the wind died down we saw a bit of blue sky came out!  Gale warning ended!  

That was a bit of a teaser though it started pouring and blowing again around 9:30 pm. But the with the sun out the solar panels got a bit of time to solar!  

We spent 3 nights in Abandoned Cove because of the gale warning. The sailboat had been there for 7 nights!!  We were ready to go. They said they had been ready to leave a while ago! But we pulled up anchor and motored out around mid morning and they were still there. Another big boat was on its was in as we were leaving. 

We saw a big raft of sea otters just outside the anchorage.  We got a few photos but they weren't very good as we couldn't get that close. 

Swordfish Bay.

June 28 & 29 

Swordfish Bay is a little anchorage on Hunter island that is described in the James and Jennifer Hamilton's book - "Cruising the Secret Coast". Jennifer describes a "delightful tombolo" 

Last year when we wanted to go to Swordfish Bay it was very foggy and we travelled in and out of fog and then we were too much fog to make the tricky entry into the Bay.  This year we had a lovely sunny day to travel. 

We were going to go up the outside of the Spitfire group and Hunter Island so we put the poles out for the swell. Once we got out into Hakai Passage and heading north we decided we didn't need to spend 3 hours in the swell and changed course to go up through the Nalau passage and through the inside, Brydon Channel and winding our way through the little narrow passages. Last year we didn't get to see this area that well because of the fog. It's was a lovely morning to motor through.  We had to put the poles up before we got into some of the narrow little passages. There were 3 that were quite narrow and tricky to navigate - shallow with rocks and kelp to keep watch out. 

The entry to Swordfish Bay is also quite narrow and long with rocks and shallow areas.  We went to the most northerly spot.  The depth was about 20 feet and the bottom was flat. 

At anchor in Swordfish Bay on a lovely sunny day. Maybe our last sunny day??  

There was a nice little sloped rocky beach with a bit of grass close by for walking Jenny. 

And just as Jennifer described - a delightful tombolo just off the south end of the bay and island 54. 

Jenny was happy the explore the beach. 

We spent two nights here. Exploring by dingy and wandering the tombolo.

Jim taking photos. 

I found live Moon snail. Jim took some photos of it in the water. 

A little crab eating a little clam 

Jim went fishing - caught a small rockfish - which he let go - and he lost a hook.  He put down the crab pots - which seemed to attract a couple of seals - but no crab. 

We would definitely come back here and it rates high Jim's  dog friendly achorage list - it was an "A" and Jenny got to romp!  

Pruth Bay

June 26th and 27th 

Pruth Bay 

We left Fury Cove after morning coffee - towing the skiff.  It was a short trip to Pruth Bay - 21 miles only. We arrived about 12:30.  There were only 7 boats anchored up when we arrived. There were a couple of boats following closing behind us. There was boat behind us called Phoenix - and they saw us on their AIS! 

The weather was bright and sunny when on the 26th, a bit of a brisk breeze in the bay. We took Jenny to shore and walked the trail to West Beach. I think she remembered the beach. She ran like a puppy. Lots of boaters walking the beach. 

The next day we walked to the Lookout. It was a little cloudier - a bit muggy even.  I took both poles for the walk, that seemed to help. The trail was definitely wetter this year. 

A view of West Beach as we walked the Lookout Trail.  We didn't take many photos this year along the walk. It was as beautiful as last year - a lot greener! 

We met up with two couples who were also heading up to the Lookout trail.  One couple on their way to Haida Gwaii. 

Jim ran into the beach seining crew - Ben and Midoli.  They seemed pleased to see him. They all got their T-shirts Jim sent them. 

We had a nice long afternoon on shore. As we were heading back to the boat around 4 PM a floatilla of sailboats began to arrive.  There was eleven sailboats with a group travelling from Anacortes to Ketchikan - Sail to Alaska.  Including some other sailboats there was probably a total of about 15 sailboats that arrived between 4 - 5:30 PM !!  There was a bit of jockeying about for everyone to find a spot to anchor! Interesting to watch.  We always try to arrive at an anchorage - or a dock, early in the day -- no later than 1 pm or so. It's amazing how any boats will arrived after 5 pm. They probably don't have dogs to take to shore!  

The sailboats starting to arrive. 

We had decide to leave the next morning anyway so all sailboats in the bay just confirmed our plans. 

Everybody is chilling before bed!  

June 24 and 25th

June 24th.

Another day in Port Hardy 

Jenny running down the dock. Jenny much prefers to be at docks! 

A bunch of Eagles having a morning visit on the shore - in the rain - Port Hardy 

Looks like somebody is in charge here!  Haha. 

June 25th 

Cape Caution -- The Thunder Dome 

We decided to make the crossing of Caution from Port Hardy.  It was going to be a longer trip -- 7-8 hours. We were going to go either to Millbrook Cove or Fury Cove - depending on the travel time. 

Jim prepared the poles in the evening before and we were up and off at 6:00 am. We decided to leave no matter what West Sea Otter was reporting.  It was raining in Port Hardy - winds calm.  West Sea Otter was SSE - 18 gusting 21, 1.3 metre seas.  We figured if it was too windy once we got out there we could duck into an anchorage and wait. 

Once we got out into the big harbour Jim put the poles in position but didn't put the fish in the water. 

Cape Caution is like the line in the sand - to be crossed and then you cross and you are now north - you have gone beyond the Thunder Dome.  The Thunder Dome of wind and waves and ocean swell!! 

As we travelled north the rain subsided. The wind never got more than 10 knts or so. That Cape Caution swell was not too bad but decided that we should put the fish in the water ( those are the big metal stabilizing fish ) since they were ready to go. It was starting to get a little rolly -- and Lilly sat up and looked a little nauseated!  The stabilizers do help!  Much less rolling once they are in the water. Lilly settled and no one barfed -- including me!  I decided we will always use the poles going around Cape Caution. 

We made great time, averaged around 8 to 8.5 knots. Even with the fish in the water. The area around Smiths Inlet had the most roll - and Lilly and I napped through that!  

We went all the way to Fury Cove, about 52 miles. 

Fury Cove is a pretty spot -- a nice midden beach for taking Jenny to shore.  We spent time there last year on our way south.  There were 4 boats there when we arrived and 11 boats by evening - 7 sailboats and 4 power boats. 

A Very Interesting Day

Port Hardy - June 23rd

It has been raining since we arrived yesterday morning. There was one small break in the rain yesterday afternoon when Jim and I took a walk into the downtown area of Port Hardy. It is only about a 20 minute walk. With my ankle 20 minutes is plenty.  It's that hard pavement the especially does me in. 

This morning my iPhone died -- dead!  So - what to do. We needed the phone. Jim has an old flip phone with no real value except emergency type calls. 

Searching for the nearest Telus store --  I thought there would be one in Prince Rupert -- we found one here in Port Hardy!  

We called and they had the iPhone 6s and I had one put away. We took a cab to the store -  it would have been a long walk in the rain. 

Seems Telus had made some changes in their available plans and the new phone would require a new plan - which would be $90 a month instead of $60 plus the cost of the phone. Plus the amount of data I currently get was no longer an option -- and so on and so on. 

So we were sort of chatting with the young man who was helping us. -- I thought maybe just buying a new iPhone 5s - no -- he didn't think that would be good value.  He says -  could it be your battery is dead??  Certainly could be. It had be losing charge very quickly as of late.  For $50 he could put in a new battery - he wasn't a trained Apple tech so it wouldn't be guaranteed. I figured for $50 it was worth a try. 

It was worth $50.00 just to watch him work!  He brightened up - got out his little collection of special tools - some of which he made himself. Telling us all about  what he was doing.  He had made a little stand to hold the phone in a certain position as he took out various minuscule screws. He had a special little suction cup contraption to separate the phone. He used a heat gun to loosen the dead battery.  We watched as he gently took the phone apart.  And he carefully replaced the battery and put the phone all back together - like nothing had ever been done to it.  He could be an orthopaedic surgeon! 

He says he taught himself how to do that. And he was just full of knowledge about all sort of things. I wish I could have taken a photo. It was amazing to watch him!  He reminded us of Eric. 

And... The phone is back on and working!  Yay!!

While we waited for the phone to start charging we had lunch at A&W and spent $17.00 on Smarties at Save On Foods. 

When we got back Jim took Jenny for a walk in the rain. Everyone required full rain gear! 

We decide to have dinner at the Quarterdeck Pub right by the marina.  It was - ok. As we were eating dinner we watched the all the firemen from the volunteer fire department doing some sort of a drill at the marina. Very interesting to watch. 

There were all kinds of other interesting sites we observed -- too bad I didn't have my camera!  

We had a bit of a concern about the guy in the sailboat across from us - the Webasto has been running all day and we hadn't seen him at all.  We mentioned it to the fire department and the Harbour staff as we were coming back from dinner. We had knocked on his window - Webasto still running. He did come out - I guess all is well!   I feel bad we disturbed him but I was a bit worried. I think he was confused by the fuss!  

The marina is full of derelict boats. They are a sad sight to see.  There is a trimaran tied up next to us that is in a bad way.  

There are number of old fishing boat that have been left to rot at the dock. 

And on top of all that -- it has been raining steady all day. Wet - wet - wet.  We are thinking of leaving tomorrow but it's hard to get motivated to do anything in the rain.  

Blunden Harbour and Port Hardy

June 21th and 22nd 

We left Port McNeill around 8 AM and had a calm and easy crossing of Queen Charlotte Striaght to Blunden Harbour.   Unfortunately the AIS was not transmitting. We saw Blue Moon on the AIS and they could not see us. Very frustrating. 

We decided to drop the anchor in Blunden Harbour. Try to do a little bit of fiddling with the connections and if we couldn't get it working we would head to Port Hardy and get Stryker Marine Electronics to come look at it. 

Blunden has the big long dock for tying up the skiff and taking Jenny to shore. 

It rained!  Hard!  Most of the night!  And it was cold. Good this the Webasto is now working well. We used it! 

Jim up on the boat deck in his wet gear. He did a little bit of cleaning of the green in the rain.  

We have surrendered the boat to the cat. We give up!  Haha 

Jim is preparing the nightcap as Lilly sits where Lilly wants to sit. 

We pulled the anchor and motored off to Port Hardy. 

The service tech from Stryker came to the boat and did some diagnostics and resetting of the AIS.  So we are hoping he has fixed the problem!  Seems all the connections are working. Just a "hard reset" and some reconfiguration -- so fingers crossed!  

We are going to spend tonight and tomorrow night in Port Hardy. It is supposed to be a bit windy tomorrow. So we will plan t go around Cape Caution from here on Friday. It will be a longish day --  44 nm - so 6 a7 hours or so. But if we leave from a dock we can get away earlier without the time needed taking Jenny to shore in the skiff and then putting the skiff back up on the boat deck. 

So here we are in Port Hardy at the Fishermen's wharf - in the rain. I think this may be the theme for this summer!! 

Port McNeill

We have been in Port McNeill for 3 nights.  I always enjoy our stay at the North Island Marina -- Steve and all the staff here are wonderful and hard working!! 

Jim and I discovered that Port McNeill -- is not Port McNeil -there are two L's!!  All this time I thought it was one! 

We are heading out this morning.  We had a quick visit with a friend of Jim's last evening - which was great to see him again. And maybe on the way back down Jim and Pieter will go fishing!  That's the best kind of fishing for Jim -- guided! 

Beautiful sunset - lots of Krogens here. 

Willy Mitchell - once a Vancouver Canuck is from Port McNeill. His jersey on the wall at Gus's Pub. 

We saw a couple we know from the Krog-In -- John and Kitsi. The were flying out on Monday.  They will be back in a week and continue north - so we might see them along the way. 

Well we are off ....